People who feel compelled to hunker in a bunker or just want to be ready for the Big One can find much of what they need at a newly opened shop in Lake Elsinore.

Protective Bunkers & Survival Center specializes in disaster preparedness from the smallest items such as fire starters and flares to the very largest -- underground shelters.

"It's better to be prepared than paranoid," said employee David Jackson, a Navy-trained specialist in survival tactics who teaches classes at the shop.

Rachel and Josh Jackling opened the store next to Interstate 15 at 279 San Jacinto River Road as an outgrowth of their own interest in being prepared in the event of a major disaster.

"We've been preparing for the unexpected for quite some time and figured the more people who are educated the better," said Rachel Jackling, who views the shop not just as a retail outlet but as a clearinghouse for information on preparedness and survival.

As an example, she recently sponsored a seminar on goat butchering.

"You could survive for a month off two goats if you need to," she said.

Also, getting through a month following a major catastrophe would be a lot more plausible by obtaining one of Jackson's specially equipped 30-day survival backpacks. It includes such necessities as sunblock; weather-proof lamps; shovel and toilet paper; a one-person tent; space blankets; a solar energy panel; waterproof windbreaker; cooking, fishing and trapping gear; peanut butter for bait; water; and, he said, "a little whiskey just for morale."

For less prolonged events, customers have the choice of a variety of "bug out" bags enabling an individual or a family to get by for a few days without the luxuries of home.

"If they have to leave, they have everything they need for the next 72 hours," Jackson said of the one-person, three-day model.

Those who want to go underground can choose from the basic storage cache up to a Class III bunker. It would enable the occupants to survive a chemically poisoned atmosphere or nuclear shroud. The top-shelf shelter comes with a nuclear biological chemical filter, Josh Jackling said.

"We turn on our NBC filter and watch DVDs," he said.

Jackling, a construction contractor by trade, said there is a growing market for the shelters, often referred to as "doomsday bunkers." although there are a few other businesses around the state that offer them, his business is the first shop to sell them.

"Nobody has a store," he said. "They're just doing it out of their garage. Ours are completely custom-built from the ground up. ... We're the only (bunker) in California that you can walk into without crawling."

Protective Bunkers & Survival Center is the only business of its kind in Lake Elsinore, said Chamber of Commerce President Kim Cousins.

"It's ... a survival center that's set up more like a grocery store," he said. "You can shop for the supplies you need in case of an emergency. Their whole idea is to get people prepared for emergencies. ... With Southern California's earthquakes and forest fires, we always need to be in that prepared mode."

The shop, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., can be reached by calling 951-245-3920 and its website is www.protectivebunkers.com.

Even before the Jacklings held an opening celebration late last month, they said, the shop was attracting numerous browsers and they believe interest in disaster preparedness is escalating.

"The way things have been going lately, it's making people want to be preparing more than they have been," Rachel Jackling said.

And, she noted, it's not always wise to depend on the government, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency.